erts after he has quitted the
place. But St. Paul was as eager about this as about the first
impressions. However small the company of the converted might be, he
formed them into a Christian Church, and ordained elders in every
city. He often left an assistant behind to carry on and consolidate
the work which he had begun. When at a distance, he was always eager
for news about his churches. His epistles are full of such anxieties;
and, indeed, his epistles themselves are the best monument of his
pastoral care; for they were written to ask after the welfare of those
whom he had left behind, or to give counsel on points about which they
had consulted him. They brim over with the expressions of a tender and
heartfelt love. He is able to assure those to whom he is writing that
he is praying for them, and that not only in the mass but one by one.
He kept their faces and names alive in his memory by thus recalling
them at the throne of grace; and his life must have been one long
prayer about his work.

Sometimes he lets the prayer which he has been offering slip through
his pen; and then we see how high was the ideal of Christian
attainment which he cherished on behalf of his converts. He was not
content that they had turned from their old sins and taken the first
steps in the Divine life. He longed to see them becoming creditable
specimens of Christianity and ornaments to the Church--complete men,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It was life itself to him to
hear of their progress: "Now we live if ye stand fast in the Lord."
And the crown to which he looked forward as the reward of all his
toils and sufferings was to be permitted at last to present the soul
of everyone of them as a chaste virgin to Christ.

Gentlemen, I believe that almost any preacher, on reviewing a ministry
of any considerable duration, would confess that his great mistake had
been the neglect of individuals. If I may be permitted a personal
reference: when, not long ago, I had the opportunity, as I was passing
from one charge to another, of reviewing a ministry of twelve years,
the chief impression made on me, as I looked back, was that this was
the point at which I had failed; and I said to myself that henceforth
I would write Individuals on my heart as the watchword of my ministry.

We make impressions in the church; but we do not follow them up, to
see that the decision is arrived at and the work of God accomplished;
and so they are dissip